Genetically Engineered 'Golden Rice' is Fool's Gold

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Press release - February 9, 2001

Genetically engineered "Golden Rice" containing provitamin A will not solve the problem of malnutrition in developing countries according to Greenpeace. The Genetic Engineering (GE) industry claims that vitamin A rice could save thousands of children from blindness and millions of malnourished people from vitamin A deficiency (VAD) related diseases. But a simple calculation based on the product developers' own figures show an adult would have to eat at least twelve times the normal intake of 300 grams to get the daily recommended amount of provitamin A.[1]

Genetically engineered "Golden Rice" containing provitamin A
will not solve the problem of malnutrition in developing countries
according to Greenpeace. The Genetic Engineering (GE) industry
claims that vitamin A rice could save thousands of children from
blindness and millions of malnourished people from vitamin A
deficiency (VAD) related diseases. But a simple calculation based
on the product developers' own figures show an adult would have to
eat at least twelve times the normal intake of 300 grams to get the
daily recommended amount of provitamin A.[1]

Syngenta, one of the world's leading genetic engineering
companies and pesticide producers, which owns many patents on the
"Golden Rice", blatantly boasts that a single month of marketing
delay of "Golden Rice" would cause 50,000 children to go
blind.[2]

Greenpeace calculations show however, that an adult would have
to eat at least 3.7 kilos of dry weight rice, (i.e. around 9 kilos
of cooked rice), to satisfy his/her daily need of vitamin A from
"Golden Rice". In other words, a normal daily intake of 300 grams
of rice would, at best, provide 8% percent of the vitamin A needed
daily. A breast-feeding woman would have to eat at least 6.3 kilos
in dry weight, which converts to nearly 18 kilos of cooked rice per
day.[3]

"It is clear from these calculations that the GE industry is
making false promises about 'Golden Rice'. It is ridiculous to
think anyone would or could eat this much rice daily, and there is
still no proof that it can provide any significant vitamin benefits
anyway," said Von Hernandez Campaign Director for Greenpeace in
Southeast Asia. The first grains of the genetically engineered rice
had been delivered to the International Rice Research Institute in
the Philippines last month for breeding into local rice varieties.
"This whole project is actually based on what can only be
characterised as deliberate deception. We recalculated their
figures again and again, we just could not believe serious
scientists and companies would do this, " he added.

To demonstrate the exaggerated claims made by industry regarding
the health-saving potential of Golden Rice, Greenpeace activists in
Manila served a volunteer the cooked equivalent of 3.7 kilos of
mock GE rice on a huge platter and placed it beside a small plate
of vegetables which would yield the same quantities of beta
carotene as the mountain of rice.

In addition, the Rockefeller Foundation, a major sponsor of the
Vitamin A rice research project, recently admitted in a letter to
Greenpeace that "the public relations uses of Golden Rice have gone
too far." While upholding their principal support for the project,
Rockefeller Foundation President Gordon Conway told Greenpeace that
"the industry's advertisements and the media in general seem to
forget that it is a research product that needs considerable
further development before it will be available to farmers and
consumer."[4]

"The wide disparity between reality and industry propaganda in
this case is appalling. These biotech pushers obviously have no
qualms about propping up half-truths in their frantic efforts to
railroad the introduction and commercialization of genetically
modified crops in developing countries like the Philippines," said
Beau Baconguis, Greenpeace GE Campaigner in the Philippines.

"The European markets have resoundingly rejected GE products,
consumers worldwide don't want them in their food, and the industry
is desperate for alternative markets. 'Golden Rice' has been
presented as a quick fix for a global problem. It isn't, and the
cash-driven propaganda about the product is drowning out other
genuine attempts to enforce existing effective solutions, and carry
out further work on other sustainable, reliable methods to address
malnutrition" added Hernandez.

Genetically engineered rice does not address the underlying
causes of vitamin A deficiency (V AD), which are mainly poverty and
lack of access to a more diverse diet. For the short- term,
measures such as supplementation (i.e. pills) and food
fortification are cheap and effective. Promoting the use and the
access to food naturally rich in provitamin A, such as red palm
oil, will also help addressing the V AD related sufferings. The
only long-term solution is to work on the root causes of poverty
and to ensure access to a diverse and healthy diet.[5]

For her part, Baconguis stressed that "Syngenta and its
pro-biotech cohorts should stop, exploiting the issues of
malnutrition and hunger for their self-serving agenda of promoting
a dangerous technology which has potentially irreversible
consequences to the environment and human health. "

Notes: [1] United Nations' World Health Organisation/Food and Agriculture Organisation and the US National Academy of Science recommendations on daily vitamin A intake.
[2] Dr. Adrian C. Dubock, of Zeneca Plant Science (now Syngenta): "The levels of expression of pro-vitamin A that the inventors were aiming at, and have achieved, are sufficient to provide the minimum level of pro-vitamin A to prevent the development of irreversible blindness affecting 500.000 children annually, and to significantly alleviate Vitamin A deficiency affecting 124.000.000 children in 26 countries." "One month delay = 50,000 blind children month." at a conference on "Sustainable Agriculture in the New Millennium" in Brussels, May 28-31,2000.
[3] Greenpeace briefing paper "Vitamin A: Natural Sources vs. Golden Rice" and "The false promise of GE rice" are available at http://www.greenpeace.org/~geneng/">http://www.greenpeace.org/~geneng/
[4] Letter to Greenpeace UK, January 22nd, 2001 http://www.greenpeace.org/~geneng/">http://www.greenpeace.org/~geneng/
[5] Nutritionists have pointed out that numerous problems converge to cause vitamin A deficiency. In a recent letter to the New York Times, Dr. Marion Nestle noted that "conversion of beta carotene to vitamin A, and transport in the body to the tissues that use vitamin A, require diets adequate in fat and protein. People whose diets lack these nutrients or who have intestinal diarrheal diseases -common in developing countries -can not obtain Vitamin A from golden rice."